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Sydney – Rip Your Jeans & Style It Out.

Firstly. It doesn’t require alcohol to enjoy getting to know new people.

Secondly. You might not need it, but it does make it much more enjoyable.

Whether it be a casual glass of wine (never done it but I hear it’s a thing) or a heavy night (I know that’s a thing), having a drink with another person produces immediate common ground.

My six weeks of sobriety came to an end as I headed to Sydney, to catch up on the last 3 years with one of my best friends, Charlie, and her boyfriend.

I will openly admit, I didn’t do much touristy stuff. I saw The Opera House. I saw The Harbour Bridge. I went on a ferry. I did the walk from Bondi to Coogee. And that was it. In 4 days, its not great deal.

We shared wine and drank cocktails and it was all lovely. I’d love to say I sampled a lot of the bars of Sydney, but we spent half of our time on the floor in just one and the other’s don’t supply the clearest memories.

It was a blowout and it was great. I don’t regret it. Charlie & Wout are great. Charlies friends are great. The Irish people that took me in when we got split up were great. Sydney was just great, even if we did spend half of it walking in a wobbly fashion and the other half moaning about how hungover we were.

The place has such a happy vibe. It’s easy to see why, with beaches on your doorstep and 20 degree heat in the winter. It made me want to move there tomorrow and learn to surf immediately. I totally understand why half of Mansfield has escaped to there. For example, the walk from Bondi to Coogee was simply breath taking. Even the graveyard you walked through had a happy vibe about it. If I wanted to be buried, I’d want to be buried there.

I will return, soon, once my friend Gabrielle returns to the city at the end of August. I’d love to say that will be more tame and cultured, but the 3 of us together for a weekend on the other side of the world? It doesn’t sound promising.

I debated whether or not to write about this next bit, but when I decided to start this blog, I intended it to convey what I was doing on this trip and my feelings and emotions at the time, so that I could read back on the experience in years to come and retrieve those memories and hysterically laugh.

Well boy oh boy did the first night deliver an experience alright. I managed to *really* rip my jeans, in the middle of a bar and provide shrouds of entertainment for the people around me. We were in an LGBT bar, so to some extent it probably worked in my favour. But I wrapped a jumper around me, sucked it up and styled it out.